Friday News

• Report: Girls are equal to math test

  Desiree Epps-Davis, 14, says she struggles every day to convince some teachers at her Chicago public school that she is just as good at math as the boys in her class.

• In Berlin, a call to renew bonds

  BERLIN — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered a call Thursday to strengthen international alliances for a new era of global challenges before an enormous, receptive audience gathered in a city once divided by the Cold War and sustained in crisis by the Atlantic alliance.

• Cancer kills 'mob enforcer' awaiting trial

  In the Chicago Outfit's long, sordid history, few mobsters talked tougher than Frank "the German" Schweihs, and even fewer carried out their threats with his cruel enthusiasm.

• Study sees racial bias in traffic-stop searches

  Civil rights groups called Thursday for ending the state police practice of searching vehicles during routine traffic stops, citing new statistics that show black and Hispanic motorists are searched more often even though drugs or other illegal items turn up more frequently among white drivers.

• John Kass: Hard-hitting football team is truly a Force for good

  Want to watch some smash-mouth tackle football this weekend as a Chicago team plays for the championship of the world?

• Corrections and clarifications, Jul. 25, 2008

  To report errors requiring

• Housing bill not just for those on edge

  If you think the housing bailout bill in Congress benefits only troubled homeowners, you may miss out. Millions of people could potentially benefit from the legislation, which is expected to become law soon. Some highlights (minus all of the fine print, of course):

• Space legend Aldrin says moon mission plan off course

  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four years after President George W. Bush announced his vision to send astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars, legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin is leading an effort to re-examine the whole idea — in particular, NASA's choice of rockets for the mission.

• Rocket rivals?

  NASA plans to replace the shuttle with its Constellation spacecraft—an Orion crew capsule boosted by Ares rockets. But retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin and others have proposed looking at an alternative—the Direct 2.0. It's a relatively simple design that would use the shuttle's external fuel tank and rocket boosters to launch the Orion capsule.

• Grizzly bear attacks woman near lodge

  ANCHORAGE — A woman working at a lodge for the summer was attacked Wednesday by a grizzly bear. Abby Sisk, 21, of Ogden, Utah, was outside the Kenai Princess Lodge in Cooper Landing when the bear attacked. She was listed in critical condition at an Anchorage hospital.

• Historic lunch counter stools sit out of view

  GREENSBORO, N.C.—The world's most infamous lunch counter was long ago chopped up into pieces and carted off to various museums, including the Smithsonian in Washington.

• Suspect held in campus shootings

  PHOENIX — A former student shot three people Thursday in a computer room at a Phoenix community college, injuring one critically, authorities said. The gunman fled but a suspect was arrested nearby.

• Spill idles ships near New Orleans

  NEW ORLEANS — Dozens of cargo ships, petrochemical tankers and smaller vessels stacked up Thursday near a closed stretch of the Mississippi River, a day after a collision between a barge and tanker spilled more than 400,000 gallons of fuel oil into the shipping waterway.

• Man linked to boat killings pleads guilty

  MIAMI — One of two men accused of killing four people aboard a chartered fishing boat last year pleaded guilty Thursday in exchange for an agreement that prosecutors wouldn't seek the death penalty.

• CIA 'good faith' memo released

  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed "in good faith" that techniques used to break prisoners' will wouldn't cause "prolonged mental harm."

• Cops: Fugitive spammer kills kin, self

  BENNETT — A convicted spammer fatally shot his wife and daughter in an apparent murder-suicide Thursday while being sought after escaping prison last weekend, authorities said.

• Crew naps with nuclear codes

  Three ballistic missile crew members in North Dakota fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices this month, triggering an investigation by military and National Security Agency experts, the Air Force said Thursday.

• Indicted sect members can hide with ease

  SAN ANGELO, Texas — Texas authorities will have their work cut out for them as they try to track members of a wealthy polygamist sect who are well-equipped to hide within a national network of safe houses, one expert said.

• Polygamist sects likened to mob

  By Dave Montgomery

• GOP rejects oil reserve release

  WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Thursday scuttled a bill that Democrats hoped would lower gasoline prices by forcing the Energy Department to release 70 million barrels of oil — about a three-day supply.

• Gas prices drive good Samaritan off the road

  SAN DIEGO — Christin Ernst was in a fix. An errant screwdriver punctured her tire on a San Diego freeway, leaving her stranded.

• Religious schools win again

  A federal appeals court ruling that a Christian university in Colorado can receive state scholarship money is the latest in a string of legal victories for religious schools seeking public dollars.

• In Chicago

  The illegal-fentanyl outbreak was first noted in Chicago in 2005 when patients who recovered from overdoses said they had been given free heroin in orange and pink plastic bags by new drug dealers trying to attract more customers.

• CDC: Toll from illegal painkiller topped 1,000

  More than 1,000 people died over two years from an illegal version of the painkiller fentanyl, the government reported Thursday in its first national tally of those deaths.

• Texas steroids testing nets 2 offenders

  DALLAS — The nation's largest steroids testing program caught only two Texas high school athletes taking unauthorized substances out of more than 10,000 students who were tested, according to results out this week.

• Breast cancer?

  In addition to blocking testosterone formation, the new drug abiraterone blocks estrogen production, leading researchers to test it for the treatment of breast cancer. But no results have been released.

• New hope on prostate cancer

  An experimental cancer drug shrank prostate tumors dramatically and more than doubled survival in 70 percent to 80 percent of patients with aggressive cancers, researchers report.

• Iraq team banned from Beijing

  BAGHDAD—Four years after its athletes received a huge ovation at the first Olympics after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq was told Thursday that its seven-member team would not be allowed to compete in Beijing because of a dispute with the International Olympic Committee.

• U.S. adds to visas for Iraqis

  BAGHDAD — The U.S. Embassy on Thursday launched an expanded Immigration program that provides 5,000 more visas each year for Iraqis who have put themselves at risk by working for the U.S. government.

• Capture of Karadzic adds to Srebrenica's ethnic divide

  SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina—The legacy of Radovan Karadzic is etched here in unsmiling, mistrustful faces; on tombstones that march shoulder-to-shoulder for nearly a quarter-mile; in empty, scarred houses whose owners never returned.

• Egypt shuts Iranian TV outlet

  CAIRO — Egyptian authorities have shut down the Cairo office of an Iranian television network, a security official said Thursday, as the two nations spar over a film that justifies the killing of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by Islamic militants.

• New Israeli settlement planned for West Bank

  JERUSALEM—A key committee has approved construction of the first new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in a decade, an Israeli official said Thursday. The news infuriated Palestinians, who said the decision could cripple peace efforts.

• Judge: Talula Does the Hula won't do

  WELLINGTON — A family court judge in New Zealand has had enough with parents giving their children bizarre names.

• Hijacker returns home after 32 years

  ZAGREB — A man who served 32 years in a U.S. prison for hijacking a plane and planting a bomb that killed a policeman returned to Croatia on Thursday after being paroled.

• Poisoned leader blames ex-ally

  KIEV—President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday accused the godfather of one of his children and member of his own political party of involvement in his near-fatal poisoning.

• Hindu protesters block highways

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• Congress OKs $48B global AIDS plan

  The House voted Thursday to triple money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world, adding life and punch to a program credited with saving or prolonging millions of lives in Africa alone.

• Change targets forced marriages

  LONDON — In an attempt to reduce forced marriages, Britain is raising the age at which someone can bring a foreign spouse to Britain. Raising the age to 21 from 18, it is hoped, will reduce the number of women, many from immigrant families, taken abroad and pressured into marrying men their families have chosen.

• Military to cut force size, close bases

  PARIS — France's military will slash its ranks by 54,000 personnel and close dozens of air, army and other bases in an overhaul meant to slim forces at home while making it easier and faster to deploy troops abroad, Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced Thursday. He said the cuts will save billions of dollars but still permit an agile military suited to security needs.

• WW II site wants a break

  LONDON — Cramped into makeshift wooden huts on the grounds of a swank Victorian mansion, Britain's sharpest mathematical minds waged a secret war against Nazi Germany—cracking Adolf Hitler's supposedly unbreakable codes.

• Formula One's Max Mosley wins privacy suit over report of Nazi orgy

  LONDON — After the sting of scandal, Max Mosley can feel the balm of victory.

• Study: Latino voters prefer Obama

  WASHINGTON — Juana Marquez very much wanted to cast her first vote in a United States presidential election for Hillary Clinton.

• Latinos in Illinois

  1.9 million

  or so Latinos live in the state, the fifth-largest Latino population in the U.S. and 4 percent of all U.S. Hispanics.

• McCain weighs unveiling VP pick

  COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican presidential candidate John McCain had his own German experience Thursday—at a restaurant in Ohio. He said he was happy to devote his time this week to touring the nation's heartland.

• Motivating your kids on math

  •Be careful about messages you send your children, especially daughters. A few negative remarks can have damaging effects.

• Lost senator

  Ever since being elected, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has spent more time running for president than actually representing the people of Illinois.

• Love-struck Tribune

  The Tribune's shameless fawning over Barack Obama reminds me more of a love-struck 13-year-old's screaming in the front row of a boy-band concert than unbiased professional journalists. Credibility is the cornerstone to the public's continued faith in the press. When it comes to the mainstream media and Obama, that was lost long ago.

• Covering candidates

  If there is any doubt that the major networks are "in the tank" for Barack Obama, one needs to look no further than the coverage devoted to his trip overseas, with CBS, NBC and ABC sending their top anchors to cover every word from the junior senator from Illinois. The ironic twist is Obama probably could not visit Iraq had one of his many policies been in place.

• Community center

  We proudly circulate video games and offer gaming programs at all three of our buildings.

• Kids in libraries

  I am a high-school librarian in Cicero and I have a huge arsenal of appropriate yet non-traditional materials available for my students. We have video games for after-school use (Guitar Hero, DDR and good old Mario Kart), traditional board games, all kinds of puzzles, card games, origami supplies, brain teasers, Sudoku, etc. I have hundreds of graphic novels and my sweet, smiling Manga fans run in each morning to swap out three more books to savor during the day. They are my best customers. Many of my kids cannot afford to purchase books or games, so I am happy to provide such materials in the library. Kids who use the library as young adults are far more likely to continue to use it after high school and into adulthood. Eventually they will be the taxpayers who will keep our community libraries alive.

• Positions on Iraq

  This is in response to columnist Steve Chapman's "McCain's confusion on Iraq" (Commentary, July 24).

• Problems of education

  Columnist Steve Chapman is both right and wrong on education ("Change: A matter of convenience," Commentary, July 20).

• Fawning over Obama

  With all three major network news anchors and a huge contingent of reporters chasing after him, Sen. Barack Obama's cutting an impressive figure in the Middle East and Europe this week. He consulted with Iraqi leaders, hobnobbed with American soldiers, and got a giddy reception in Berlin.

• Video games are vital part of any educational environment

  This is in response to "Quiet in the library? Shhh!" (Editorial, July 24), which posed the following question to our readers: "Should libraries stock video games—or ban them?"

• Quiet zone

  The thought of going into my wonderful library and hearing kids playing loud video games is appalling. I go to the Indian Prairie Library in Darien several times a week. Patrons are not allowed to even talk on their cell phones. A library is a quiet zone. Kids need to learn to read, not play games.

• High cost of good intentions

  Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced recently that he wants to give autistic children the most comprehensive health insurance coverage in the nation. If the legislature agrees to changes he wrote into a bill, state law will require companies that sell health insurance in Illinois to pay up to $36,000 a year for an unlimited number of medical visits for patients up to age 21.

• Coverage complaints

  How can John McCain's handlers and backers complain about all the press coverage Barack Obama is getting on his Middle East travels when it was they who prodded McCain into repeatedly chiding Obama for not traveling there in the first place?

• Girls gone vicious

  I'll have a large Earl Grey tea, an almond biscotto and a vicious display of female teenage cruelty, please. With a side order of anguish over the moral obligations of an onlooker.

• Timothy J. McNulty: Diversity efforts missing readers

  When media executives talk about diversity, the focus is generally on the need to hire more minorities. A different way of thinking about it is that the media need to attract new audiences.

• Strip for the trip? Not a good idea

  Random air travelers going through security at a number of major U.S. airports will soon face a choice among three unsavory alternatives: submit to a full-body frisk, undergo an X-ray body scan that reveals everything that clothes have covered since Adam and Eve ate the apple or just turn around and go back to their own gardens.

• In Berlin, Obama says global threats call for stronger alliances

  Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came to a city once divided by the Cold War and sustained in crisis by the Atlantic alliance to call today for a strengthened commitment to international alliances in a new era of international threats.

• Transcript of Obama's speech in Berlin

  Transcript of Sen. Barack Obama's speech in Berlin on Thursday: